MEDIUM: Injection molded plastic
KIT NUMBER: F7
DECALS: 2 Versions-- One from the Yokosuta Kokutai, c.1940 and
one flying off of IJNS Akagi
OVERALL IMPRESSION: Good
DATE OF REVIEW: March 30, 1998
The Aichi D3A-1 (Allied code name “Val”) was the
premiere carrier-born dive bomber at the outbreak of World II and
remained so until the Battle of Midway in June of 1942. Although
supposedly replaced by the “Judy”, the truth is the Val
remained in service with the Japanese Navy until the bitter end.
Already obsolete when the war broke out, with its spatted wheels
and greenhouse cockpit, it was still an outstanding dive-bomber
if it had adequate fighter protection. As the war progressed and
the Japanese Navy lost its carrier fleets, the Val was relegated
to training duties until the end of the war when it was used as a
Kamikaze.
Fujimi’s 72nd scale Val was released about 10 years ago. The
box art shows a Val cruising over the beaches of Hawaii. Molded
in a hard, light gray plastic, the kit features finely recessed
panel lines. Like their Phantom series, Fujimi chose to mold this
kit in a modular way so that later versions of the Val could be
sold separately. Whatever happened to “choice of three
versions using the enclosed parts”?
Starting with the cockpit, the word that comes to mind is “spartan”.
You get the cockpit floor, two seats, a pilot’s control
stick, and a flat instrument panel. A decal is provided to
represent the instruments. There is no side console detail or any
other representations of cockpit fixtures, except a box structure
on a shelf between the pilot and observer that represents a
radio. Since Fujimi only provides the canopy in the closed
position, and since it has a lot of framing, the lack of
interior detail is not TOO noticeable. This, however, was a
disappointment as after having built their excellent F7U-3
Cutlass and F-86F Sabre in this scale, I had come to expect a lot
of interior detail such as found in those kits.
The kit went together fairly easily but the fit was made more
complicated by the modular construction of the molding. As a
result, putty was required at almost every seam, but not copious
amounts. Due to Fujimi’s use of a hard plastic, lost panel
lines were hard to rescribe. The cradle/trapeze for the main
250kg bomb was “fiddly” to construct and the one in my
kit broke when I cut it from the sprue. The 250 kg bomb and the
two 60kg bombs represented on this version have positive locating
slots in them that, while useful in attaching them, are not very
realistic looking. The arming propeller on the nose of the 250kg
bomb broke off during construction and was replaced by thin brass
wire, unpainted.
The exhaust stacks appear to stick out too far from the cowling.
The antenna attaches to the canopy but is way too thick in scale.
If the real item had been this thick, it would have been at least
3 feet wide! The main gear wheels are molded in with the spats
making painting difficult.
The canopy framing was difficult to mask and paint. After several
attempts using various masking techniques, I painted some clear
decal paper the interior color followed by the exterior color,
cut them to size and used the strips to represent the framing.
Decals from the Aeromaster Tora, Tora, Tora sheet were used to
represent a red-tailed Val from the Kaga in late 1940. They went
on beautifully, except for the two red stripes around the
fuselage (I have difficulty with stripes going around a compound
curve, never seeming to get them right! Therefore, stripes are
painted and masked where possible.) Aeromaster decals are
unreservedly recommended.
When completed, you have a good representation of the premiere
Japanese carrier-based dive bomber of early World War II. Due to
the complex modular construction and the many small, fragile
parts; this kit is not recommended for the novice builder. That
said, it is probably the best model of the Val in this scale.